Bumpers are commonly used on most vehicles to help protect the vehicle from contact with an object, such as another vehicle, or a wall, or a guard rail, for example. The bumper typically consists of any protective guard or pad for absorbing the disturbance caused by the contact, and/or for reducing possible dents and dings to the vehicle.
Bumpers on material handling vehicles typically utilize either a metal bumper or a rubber bumper that is secured to the vehicle frame. Although both the metal bumper and rubber bumper work to help protect the vehicle and to improve the durability of the vehicle, the metal bumper creates a rigid joint and tends to transmit higher amounts of energy to areas of the vehicle away from the area of contact. In comparison, the rubber bumper reduces the energy transmissibility to other components away from the area of contact because of its elastomeric properties, but does not improve durability greatly because of poor resistance to abrasion. Even in configurations where both metal and rubber are combined in a layered bumper configuration, they are utilized in a rigid configuration where neither layer is permitted to move relative to the vehicle frame and/or each other. This rigid design limits the function of the layered configuration to a single function, either durability or reduced energy transmissibility.
What is needed is a laminate bumper configuration that provides both the features of durability and reduced energy transmissibility.